We all know people who unfailingly seem to see the worst in any situation.

Before you’ve even finished telling them that you are expecting your first child, they will launch into a story about someone who lost their first baby in a freak accident.

Or they will point out where you are going wrong with everything you thought you were pretty good at in life.

Every office has a cloud person – the one who walks into a room and immediately turns the atmosphere heavy and dark.

When these people are also our relatives or partners, it can be even worse.

Their view of the world is clouded by the pessimism within them and they see everything through this cloudy vision.

Life becomes ‘difficult’ constantly, everything is a ‘struggle’, other people are ‘awkward’ or ‘idiots’ and they seem to be able to stifle your naturally sunny personality with one withering look or gesture.

Cloud people are to be avoided or dealt with as little as possible if we are to retain our sanity.

They devote a lot of time and energy trying to convince all around them that they are right.

They will sap our energy and shrink our spirit if we let them.

If part of our family, they will infect the whole household with their warped and negative view of the world.

Even if we do not succumb to seeing the world through their cloud covered eyes, we will expend a lot of energy trying to keep from doing so.

These people tend to be very forceful in their opinions as they are desperate for others to see the world from their perspective as well.

We often don’t realise just how much their negativity affects us until we are away from their influence.

Only time and distance can allow our own blue skies to return and the sun to shine fully again from our eyes.